Ten runners ran 4km to help sort donations at the Scope charity shop

Finally, a pleasant, warm (for February) evening greeted us as 10 fantastic runners made their way to their favourite basement to help Scope sorting their donations.

Tonight we welcomed Rob along for his first run and we were delighted to see that Tiffany wasn't put off by last week's mini catastrophe as she returned for her second group run! Well done to both of you!

With Mel and Dave taking a direct route, the rest of the group looped through the bustling city centre and met at Scope. As we approached Rutland St, Huw was extremely relieved to see the lights were on and shop manager Jean was ready and waiting for us to get to work. And boy was there plenty for us to get stuck into this week. The basement was jam packed with bags full on donations ready for us to sort into categories to allow the staff to keep the shop stocked much more efficiently. Michaela and Jimmy set to work labelling the bags while everyone else got cracking with sorting the donations. As usual, debate was sparked about which items needed their own categories with the swimwear bag being sure to sell quickly in February no doubt!

Hats seemed to take centre stage for this visit's silliness as Jeanette and Jimmy worked their magic in a pair of wizard's hats while Dave found a very fetching wooly number to wear. Irene took the dressing up honours this week though as she discovered a delightful pair of boxing trunks (matching the GoodGym red) and gave us her mean and nasty boxing pose!

The time flew by as usual and as we crept slightly over our scheduled departure time we were able to reflect on a cleared basement floor and a huge number of bags of donations sorted to make life easier for Scope.

We ventured back via the DMU campus, using the vast pedestrianised area for a fitness session. After snaking round the area as a group we finished with a "no watch" timed challenge with the runners setting off individually aiming to land back at the meeting point as close to the given time as possible. Jeanette and Irene came out victorious this time arriving back just four seconds away from the target time.

A super effort from everyone tonight and we'll be returning to Scope again in a few weeks time. Jean has already emailed to express her gratitude for our visit, be proud of what we do to help others every week, it really does make a difference!

HD

****Eight runners ran 4km first to their original task, then to Bede Park to do an emergency litter pick!

"Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Lettuce." "Lettuce who?" "Lettuce in, it's cold out here!"

Everyone has a favourite knock knock joke, however here's one that no GoodGym Trainer wants to hear...

"Knock knock." ... "Knock knock." ... "Knock knock."

The lights were off and nobody was home despite the task being booked and confirmed. Disaster strikes, panic sets in. What can we do? How embarrassing! I've got a new runner with us today, she must think this is a right shambles!

Never fear, the GoodGym runners are a resourceful group. A quick trip to Poundland for some bin bags and gloves and off we went for a litter picking adventure. Many thanks to Nicola who utilised modern technology to great effect by using her phone to buy the emergency supplies and in the process was charmed by the automated till in the shop that greeted her by telling her she was a lovely person! Who knew machines were such good judges of character?!

We ventured back through Town Hall Square and the university to Bede Park and somewhat later than planned began doing some good! WIth a mind scrambled by the task disaster, Huw realised very late in the day that regular photographer Mel wasn't with us today and soon became aware that his nighttime snapping skills were not in the same league!

With a slightly later finish to the task, we took advantage of the newly painted distance markers on the Bede Park loop for a quick fitness session before making our way back to DMU to stretch off and share the amazing news of GoodGymmers smashing the 6,000 good deeds and 80,000kms run target for January.

A huge well done to Tiffany who joined us for the first time tonight, worked really hard on the run and fitness activity and took the somewhat improvised nature of tonight's group run in her stride! It would be great to see you back with us next week!

Thanks to everyone for their efforts and understanding tonight, next week we're off to help Perfectly Edible, previously known as The Real Junk Food Project, deep cleaning their kitchen.

HD